Reflective Design (Sengers et al., 2005) is a design paradigma based on the slow technology movement, which porposes „A design agenda for technology aimed at reflection and moments of mental rest rather than efficiency in performance[1]“. Reflective design emphasizes the socialtechnological elements in a product design, which doesn’t only mean to design a product with pure focus on high efficiency as well as effectivity, but also to design a product which assist the users to proactively interact with product/system while using it.
Sengers et al. (2005) defines reflective design as „a practice which combines analysis of the ways in which technologies reflect and perpetuate unconscious cultural assumptions, with design, building, and evaluation of new computing devices that reflect alternative possibilities“[2].
Reflective Design provides a framework for reconsidering the design that allows designers to rethink and examine their preassumptions about the systems they create, their design principles regarding target users as well as the social impact of chosen technologies. It also provides a toolkit that enables the users to be part of this reflective process.
Principles of Reflective Design [2]:
(1) Designers should use reflection to uncover and alter the limitations of design practice;
(2) Designers should use reflection to re-understand their own role in the technology design process;
(3) Designers should support users in reflecting on their lives;
(4) Technology should support skepticism about and reinterpretation of its own working;
(5) Reflection is not a separate activity from action but is folded into it as an integral part of experience;
(6) Dialogic engagement between designers and users through technology can enhance reflection.
Reflective Design Strategies [2]:
(1) Provide for interpretive flexibility;
(2) Give users license to participate;
(3) Provide dynamic feedback to users;
(4) Inspire rich feedback from users;
(5) Build technology as a probe;
(6) Invert metaphors and cross boundaries.
References:
[1] VL 11-3_HCI_Advanced_Topics_Reflective_Technologies, Page 5, HCI SoSe 2021, access at 23:39, 02.Jul.2021
[2]Sengers, P., Boehner, K., David, S., & Kaye, J. J. (2005, August). Reflective design. In Proceedings of the 4th decennial conference on Critical computing: between sense and sensibility (pp. 49-58).
